Raising Babies in the 70s - Chapter 132

Qin Rou gave birth one year after she joined the job. Her monthly salary was thirty six yuan, and she also had a monthly allowance of eight yuan, which was equivalent to the ordinary wage of ordinary workers.

An unmarried colleague like her could still live a good life. The charges for all kinds of canteen meals were quite similar. She could still eat meat often. If they were vegetarian, they could save a little bit more. By only eating a vegetarian diet, sixty or seventy yuan would be enough for food and clothing. They could save some money to buy soap, clothes, small leather shoes, go to a movie and buy some books on vacation, etc.

But if they were married, it would be different. If they wanted to raise a child, they had to stay indoors to live. 

In any age, for ordinary working people, getting married did reduce the quality of life. 

Even if they didn’t eat canteen meals and cook at home, they really couldn’t save much money.

Although the vegetables were only a few cents a pound, if one wanted to cook, you had to buy firewood and honeycomb. Qin Rou calculated the family’s money for buying honeycomb briquette and firewood for a month. Her family used both. Her brother-in-law and mother-in-law would come to her house for dinner. There were also two or three stoves. The stove for honeycomb briquette was used to boil a pot of water. After calculating, one honeycomb coal would burn four or five yuan a day. Coupled with a few loads of firewood, the fire alone would cost seventeen or eighteen yuan.

Looking at it that way, just burning the fire would burn half of her salary in a month. It was terrible. In addition to other firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea, she ordered goat milk for five yuan a month…

Well, the family had a lot of expenses.

Of course, if one started the fire themselves, there would be room for saving money. If they grew their own vegetables, they would save money on vegetables. If they raised chickens and eggs, they would save money on eggs or simply go to chop wood and pick up cinders, which would save another expense.

The price of chopped firewood and the price of uncleaved firewood was different. If they wanted to save money, they had to immerse themselves in some trivial money-saving labor every day.

Like Qin Rou and Lu Yan, as well as Wang Yuanzheng and Xue Xiaohui, newly married couples who had no children, each person had an estimated thirty kilograms of food stamps a month. The two bought fine grains, and they could eat white rice and steamed buns every day, and their wages were fully used. But with children, naturally, the pressure would be doubled.

Qin Rou’s family’s situation was not bad, Xiao Yan often ate with her, and his mother had no spendings in the army. She often sent some wheat milk essence milk powder snacks over. It was said that the daily dietary standard of the current underwater submariners was more than two yuan per day, but they did not have to pay for the expense, and the treatment was quite good, but it was hard work, with high risk, working in small space, dull and noisy. It was not easy for the engineers on board to work in a high temperature of forty to fifty degrees.

Her parents-in-law had pensions, and they helped to take care of Zhouzhou and Jiaozi at home. They didn’t have much living expenses, but they buy a lot of milk powder for the family’s little babies, and often buy some meat, sesame and peanuts.

Qin Rou, and Lu Yan had a surplus of more than one hundred yuan after a month’s expenses, and their life was quite comfortable.

With that, they would save a thousand yuan a year. After getting married, Lu Yan was not as capable of saving money as before marriage.

“Is there a sturgeon (fish)?”

 “It was bought by xx.” 

There were several farms there, as well as a fishing company. Once the fishing troop returned, each team would come to pull the harvest. Supplies and pulling supplies were also in order. Surface troops were given priority over shore, and they were selected first.

“Good comrade, can you help me see if there are roes in it? I just want the roes in it,” Qin Rou asked cheekily.

 “Okay.”

Qin Rou pocketed a large bag of roe, and picked out a lot of octopus and mackerel. A woman at the back saw that she had bought a lot of mackerel, and her eyes twitched.

Mackerel, also known as black fish, was much more valuable than oysters, scallops, and prawns, and most people ate them only when they had dinner parties during the New Year.

Mackerel fish had less bones and more meat. The fish meat could be used to make dumplings, or it could be marinated with salt and dried in the sun. It was very fragrant and delicious when it was steamed on rice.

Someone couldn’t help but say a few words, “Xiao Qin, your family has an extra two boys, so you have to learn to live a little bit economically.”

Qin Rou smiled and nodded.